“Love’s Paradox,” a mixed-media Damien Hirst work featuring bisected-cow sections stored in formaldehyde-filled tanks, was on view in London earlier this year; he is donating a similar piece to the Tate

Controversy and provocation were the wrappers in which Damien Hirst’s creations came packaged when the British artist emerged on the international scene in the 1990s.

Who can forget seeing, for the first time, a group of Hirst’s glass-walled containers, like giant fish tanks, containing the sliced-up sections of a whole cow? Or his dizzy-psychedelic “spin paintings,” made by throwing paint at round canvases laid flat upon motorized, spinning wheels? (David Bowie helped him make some.) Or how about his “fly paintings,” in which dead flies completely covered the surface of a canvas?

Today, Hirst’s artworks sell for millions of British pounds or Yankee dollars a pop. This past summer, a London gallery showed the artist’s life-size cast of a human skull in platinum, covered with diamonds. That work’s title: “For the Love of God.” Described as “art’s costliest work ever” (Guardian), it was reportedly sold to a consortium of buyer-investors for around £50 million (roughly $100 million).

Damien Hirst posing with his work “For the Love of God,” a life-size cast of a human skull in platinum, covered with diamonds, which sold this year for nearly $100 million

At least week’s Art Basel Miami Beach international art fair, Hirst’s London art dealers showed a limited-edition print based on that pricey piece. “For the Love of God, Laugh,” a photo-lithographic print on paper made with glazes and diamond dust, presents an image of a gem-encrusted skull. Over the years, some of the main themes of the artist’s work have included death, immortality and the nature of art itself.

Now, Hirst, an art-world superstar, has made it known that he will donate four of his most emblematic works to the Tate, the U.K.’s national museum of British and modern art. They include “Mother and Child Divided,” a recreation of a 1993 piece which consists of a cow and a calf, each of which has been bisected, and whose sliced sections are displayed in formaldehyde-filled tanks. The artist is also giving the museum “The Acquired Inability to Escape” (1991), a display case containing, among other things, cigarettes, a lighter, an ashtray and cigarette stubs; for Hirst, a Tate press release notes, “the cigarette is a multi-layered symbol suggesting luxury, danger and death.”

Also destined for the museum: “Who is Afraid of the Dark?” (2002), one of Hirst’s early “paintings” made with flies, and “Life Without You” (1991), an arrangement of seashells on a desk. Regarding his donations to the museum, Hirst said: “It means a lot to me to have works in the Tate. I would have never thought it possible when I was a student. I’ve been in negotiations with the Tate for a few years to make sure they get the right pieces to represent me properly. I think giving works from my collection is a small thing if it means millions of people get to see the work displayed in a great space.” (Tate; also, the Guardian)

Considering, as research done by the museum-supporting British charity, the Art Fund, has shown, that budgets at museums around the United Kingdom for acquiring artworks have severely diminished, Hirst’s donation to the Tate is noteworthy. It comes at a time when the Art Fund continues to press the British government to create tax incentives to encourage Britons to make donations to public cultural institutions like museums. Nicholas Serota, the Tate’s director, observed of Hirst’s donation: “I am extremely grateful to Damien for his overwhelming generosity in making such a significant gift to Tate and for working closely with us to ensure we have an important range of his work. With such a limited budget for acquisitions, and when art market prices are high, Tate is indebted to international contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst for working with us on building the collection.” (Tate, Reuters and thisislondon.co.uk/Evening Standard)